


Caught In The Crossfire

by melliyna



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen, cm: family verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-01
Updated: 2010-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 22:31:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melliyna/pseuds/melliyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started <a href="http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html">with this fic</a>. Title from <i>Fidelity</i> by Regina Spektor.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Caught In The Crossfire

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started [with this fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html). Title from _Fidelity_ by Regina Spektor.

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[fandom: criminal minds](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fandom:+criminal+minds), [fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [kid-verse-au](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/kid-verse-au), [rating: pg](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/rating:+pg)  
  
---|---  
  
_**Fic: Criminal Minds: Caught In The Crossfire]**_  
**Title:** Caught In The Crossfire  
**Author:** [](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/profile)[**melliyna**](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandoms:** Criminal Minds  
**Pairings:** Mild Hotch/Gideon  
**Word Count:** 1,200  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warnings:** Language   
**Disclaimer:** Criminal Minds, the concept and the characters belong to their creator, CBS and their respective actors. No profiteering is intended from this piece.   
**Author's Note:** Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started [with this fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html). Title from _Fidelity_ by Regina Spektor.

They both know where they stand with each other, somewhere between frosty dislike and grudging professional respect, but there's always an edge to it. Verbal warfare between desks, indeed. Katie had been heard to remark that the time period when they had been forced in to adjoining desks had turned the BAU bull-pen in to a metaphorical setting for WWIII . The two of them might be able to work together, but it didn't mean either of them had to enjoy the process. Or not seek to employ sarcasm as a deadly weapon and make sure that each of them knew exactly how irritating the other was. Gideon thinks Dave is an arrogant, pompous bastard; Dave thinks Gideon is just an irritating bastard. No one is entirely sure how they work together, though it might have something to do with the desire to be the best. But it's about the victims, too, underneath the ambition and Gideon's book of the saved and the damned. They would just never admit it to each other.

Dave does not want to know about Gideon's life outside the BAU. Hell, he barely wants to know about his life in it, especially when he had to share a hotel room with the creep - because yes, Dave thought Gideon was creepy. Brilliant, yes, he'll own to that (he's got the sin of pride in spades, does David Rossi, but he can recognise a gift), but Gideon is too focused, too intent. It's as though there's room for nothing else, though he's never really inquired. From what he does know, Gideon watches birds, goes duck hunting. Really, it speaks for itself.   
And then there's the photographs, which Dave tries not to look at because they creep him the hell out and remind him too much of trophies. Maybe he's kept things, to remind himself of what he needs to do, but he's never kept the victims the way Gideon does, not even the ones he's saved. They tend to avoid each other's eyes, when they aren't sniping or working, and an enquiry into the faces that crowd the other man's desk is not something that Dave wants to articulate. Though he has seen the photos of the kids—Gideon's kids, which frankly is a thought to strike terror into the hearts of child development experts everywhere, unless their other parent is actually competent. And right there is where he says, "No, I'm not being fair to Jason Gideon." Except he doesn't care.

It's actually something close to a normal workplace's end of the day, but as far as Dave can see, they are both dug in for the night. It's what usually happens, which is why he's surprised to see Gideon falling into the patterns, going home. He's pondering this still when he sees the main doors opening out of the corner of his eye and gets an impression of a younger man in a suit. He pings a reference in Dave's brain that he can't quite place, as he has his back turned, looking around the bull-pen.

"Jason, are you..."   
The younger man turns around, and that's when he and Dave catch sight of each other. Suddenly Dave can almost feel the Marine uniform against his skin again, and David Rossi now knows that Aaron Hotchner is apparently married to Jason Gideon. Dave's first thought is unprintable, though the shape of it might be something about how this is the best example of marrying above yourself he's ever seen, seriously (he's self-aware enough to admit the jealous bias in that thought, but it doesn't mean it's not true). And damn that this is his first thought, but they'd always had something, the two of them.   
As he walks over, Dave takes the opportunity to look over the younger man. Aaron isn't the raw recruit or the competent young Marine anymore, but he looks good. Settled, focused, and, well, happy. It might sting that it's Jason Gideon who he has made his life with, but Dave's glad that Aaron Hotchner has found a family and a settled existence.

"Dave? You ended up at the BAU?"   
And then he's got an armful of Hotch, and he admits, it's good to hug him again. As friends, aside from anything else. He doesn't ask why Jason never said anything, both because Aaron isn't stupid and also because he can probably feel Gideon glaring from at least twenty feet and (if it had been the case) several floors away.   
"I hope it's treating you well."

"Well enough. No one's tried to kill me yet, so magic eight ball says 'positive answer indicated'."

Aaron, at least as far as Dave could tell, appeared to have his "I am rolling my eyes at you in my mind" expression that he'd seen way back in the Marines. He was going to ignore the hints that the younger man was trying not to laugh, thank you very much. Though David Rossi likes that he can still make Aaron laugh, in a way that he gets the feeling Gideon just doesn't (or one more point to Team Rossi, because yes, he is keeping score).

"Hotch?"

If Gideon had been glaring any more than he was, Dave was fairly sure he'd have been dust and ashes by now.

"I thought you'd like an early night - there's a table at Via Vianti waiting for us, and the kids have a babysitter."

Ouch. Kids. Dave was trying not to think about the kids. It's not that he's was attracted to parenthood, but, well, it's Aaron. And Aaron has had always been at ease around kids in a way you'd expect a good parent to be, and fuck, that's a point to Jason Gideon. That one stung, all right. So did watching Jason clear his desk and sign out at lightning speed, but he'd have to add another point to the Rossi column for the chat he and Aaron managed about their doings since the Marines. And then later, he sends a text message, semi-apologetic, semi-"we weren't that bad, were we?" The rest of it goes something like this:

"Oh, yes it was. It was laugh or try to kill you both!" I (That was Aaron.)

"You wouldn't." (He types it back, because both of them always seem to manage to communicate in complete sentences in written forms of communication. It's a writer's quirk for him and, apparently, for Aaron, who took linguistics in college, Dave remembers).

"Dave, I'm a lawyer. You and Jason are, as you know, you and Jason. I'd make sure the jury gave me a medal. A big shiny one."

"We were really that bad?"

"Well, it was either laugh, kill you both, or say, 'children, behave'."

That's when Dave Rossi starts snickering in the middle of the BAU, entirely despite himself.


End file.
